Brief History of Roane County, Tennessee

     Located near the center of East Tennessee, Roane County is bounded on the north by Anderson and Morgan counties, on the east by Knox and Loudon, on the south by Loudon, McMinn, and Meigs, and on the west by Rhea and Cumberland.                 

     White settlement in Roane County followed the establishment of Campbell's Station on the west bank of Turkey Creek in present Knox County.  One historian says that the first white people to see the area that was to become Roane County did so in 1779.  In 1788 a road from Campbell's Station to the Cumberland settlements was opened.  This road, sometimes called Avery Trace, crossed both the Emory and Clinch rivers near the northern border of Roane County.  Twelve years after the founding of Campbell's Station two of it's pioneers, Archibald McCaleb and James Campbell, were among those petitioning for the creation of a county that was eventually called Roane County.

     In July of 1799 the citizens in this region petitioned the state legislature asking that Knox County be divided so that a new county could be formed.  Several petitions later the Tennessee legislature passed an act creating a new county on November 6, 1801.  While the petitioners had asked that the new county be named Gallatin, the new county was named Roane in honor of the new governor, Archibald Roane who had taken office September 23, 1801.  The boundaries of Roane County were defined as "Beginning at the corner of Knox County on the south bank of Holston river, running along said line to Clinch river on the north bank, thence up or down said north bank as the case may be, to the corner of Anderson County, thence along said line, north forty five degrees west, to the northwest corner thereof, thence south, forty five degrees west, to the southern boundary of this state, thence east, along said southern boundary to the river Tennessee, on the south side, thence up the several meanders of said river on the south side, to a point opposite the south bank of Holston river, thence to the said south bank, thence up the several meanders of the south side to the beginning."  

    The area was inhabited by the Cherokee Indians when the first white settlers arrived in the area that would become Roane County.  The Indians remained here, and some of their number who had been absorbed into the white community escaped the removal to the West on the Trail of Tears in 1838.  Although earlier treaties removed their claim to much of the land, it was not until the treaties of 1817 and 1819 that the Cherokee title to the land in present Roane County was finally extinguished. 

     The strategic location of Roane County continued to influence its development from the date of formation.  In 1801 Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs was appointed Indian Agent and War Agent of the United States to the Cherokees, and by order of the Secretary of War moved the combined agency to Southwest Point Fort (at Kingston).  All the transactions between the government and the Cherokee Indians took place at Southwest Point until the garrison was removed July 1, 1807, to Hiwassee Garrison.  Traders, missionaries, and other persons having business with the Cherokees made the arrangements through the office at Southwest Point.

     By terms of a treaty in 1805, concluded at Tellico, the Cherokees made cessions which included the section of land on which southwest Point Fort stood, with the provision that Kingston should become the capital of Tennessee, the United States having represented to the Indians that such was the desire of the State of Tennessee.  Accordingly, on Monday, September 21, 1807, the legislature met briefly at Kingston and adjourned until their next meeting at Knoxville.  They had complied with the letter, but not the intent, of the treaty.  This is the sad history of how Kingston became the state capital for just one day.

Map showing Roane County as originally created in 1799.  Note the other counties that were completely or partially pulled from early Roane.